Dr Veronica Iacovacci - Coping with medical microrobotics challenges: novel fabrication, control and imaging paradigms.

Talk Abstract: Medical micro- and nanorobots have been demonstrated for a variety of non-invasive
biomedical applications. However, most of these demonstrations have been carried out in
in vitro settings and under optical microscopy, being significantly different from the clinical
practice. Better control and imaging are among the challenges to be faced to help
microrobots meet clinical needs and perform real medical tasks.
Grounding on this awareness, novel solutions for magnetic soft microrobots fabrication,
control and imaging in tissues will be presented. In the first part of the talk, a novel printing
method for soft microrobots with omnidirectional magnetization profile will be presented
towards enhanced multimodal microrobots control. In the second part of the talk, a novel
concept of distributed control will be presented to provide an alternative approach to
cope with reduced controllability challenges at small scales. In the last part of the talk, the
use of ultrasound acoustic phase analysis for microrobot imaging and tracking in tissues
will be presented. This type of ultrasound imaging in combination with magnetic actuation
will finally result in the closed-loop control of magnetic microrobots in realistic
environments.

Biography: Veronica Iacovacci obtained the M.Sc. Degree in Biomedical Engineering at University of
Pisa in 2013 (full marks, cum laude) with a thesis entitled “Design and development of a
mechatronic implantable system for the refilling of artificial organs”. In October 2013 she
joined the Surgical Robotics and Allied technologies Area at Scuola Superiore di Studi
Universitari e Perfezionamento Sant'Anna (SSSA) as a PhD student and she obtained the
Ph.D. in Biorobotics (full marks, cum laude) with a thesis on smart magnetic microsystems for
targeted therapy. Both thesis were awarded as best thesis by the Italian national
Bioengineering group. From October 2018 to March 2019 she was Post-doctoral Fellow at the
Multi-Scale Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich and from April 2019 to September 2020 at the
BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. From September 2023 to August 2023
Veronica was Marie Curie Skłodowska Global Fellow jointly at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
(Pisa – Italy) and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong – SAR) with the
project (MAMBO - Magnetic swarm for liver chemoembolization).Dr. Iacovacci was recently
awarded with an ERC Starting grants to develop the first generation of implantable
microrobots. She is currently Associate Professor in Biomedical Robotics. Her research
interests include medical microrobots and fully implantable devices with a focus on
programmable magnetic structures, high resolution imaging and tracking and wireless
activation at small scales. She serves as Associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Medical
Robotics and Bionics and for the main conferences dealing with medical robotics. She is
principal investigator in several European project and supervisor of about 10 PhD and MSc
students.